The National Park Service is implementing an interim plan that will put a temporary moratorium on issuing additional permits to commercial operations who want to take tourists up to the Haleakala summit to witness the sunrise.
This will allow more locals and individuals in private cars to use the parking lots.
Even though all the tourist guides suggest that seeing sunrise atop Haleakala is a must for every tourist, the National Park Service says sunset is just as spectacular, and the parking lot is virtually deserted at that time.
I've travelled a few times up to the summit to see the sunrise, but it's become a zoo now to have to compete with huge tour buses and those idiotic bike-down-the mountain concessions who put both their patrons and other drivers in peril. When I was a small kid, you could go up there and maybe have to share the awesome spectacle with 20 or so people. Now it's elbow to shoulder people. And after about a half hour, they all head back down the mountain, without taking advantage of the displays and exhibits that explain both the Hawaiian legend of Maui as well as the geological foundations for the island of Maui. Sad.
Miulang
This will allow more locals and individuals in private cars to use the parking lots.
Even though all the tourist guides suggest that seeing sunrise atop Haleakala is a must for every tourist, the National Park Service says sunset is just as spectacular, and the parking lot is virtually deserted at that time.
I've travelled a few times up to the summit to see the sunrise, but it's become a zoo now to have to compete with huge tour buses and those idiotic bike-down-the mountain concessions who put both their patrons and other drivers in peril. When I was a small kid, you could go up there and maybe have to share the awesome spectacle with 20 or so people. Now it's elbow to shoulder people. And after about a half hour, they all head back down the mountain, without taking advantage of the displays and exhibits that explain both the Hawaiian legend of Maui as well as the geological foundations for the island of Maui. Sad.
Miulang
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